This past weekend, my awesome friend Laura and I went to Manuel Antonio. It’s a beach town with a gorgeous national park known for its pristine beaches, sloths, and mischievous monkeys…
First of all, I love traveling with Laura and am SO grateful that God has blessed me with her friendship. Every trip we’ve taken and all the time I’ve spent with her since I’ve known her has just been filled with conversations that I just know make God smile a lot. She’s such an encouraging person and definitely someone I love talking with about the awesomeness of God’s love and grace in our lives!
We met lots of fun new people at the hostel right away Saturday morning. While I was making pancakes, I accidentally squirted oil all over the pancakes and hands of the guy on the griddle next to me, and thus we made our first friend, despite my clumsiness, haha. “Guillermo” (or “Guillame” as he was undoubtedly known in his home of Quebec, before he traveled to Latin America and adopted “Guillermo”) was very friendly and generous. We also met the other Guillame (who decided to keep his French name, apparently) and Milagros, a girl from Argentina. We all ended up taking the bus to the park together, so we spent most of the morning hiking together through the park. It was a fun dynamic because the Guillame and Guillermo spoke English and French, Milagros only spoke Spanish, and of course Laura and I speak English (but could talk pretty well to Milagros in Spanish as well).
During our hike on the trails, we saw two sloths moving fairly quickly and had a few fantastic views of the ocean and some of the islands off the coast. We also made other new friends, Lee from Colorado and David from Texas (who is here for “medical tourism:” having teeth replaced and turning it into a four week trip). Eventually we all sort of split up and Laura and I ended up taking some side trails with David. My favorite moment: while looking for monkeys, David mentioned how we’d see one eventually, wearing a gold chain he stole from somebody, saying, “Mae, I been hustlin’ since you was homo erectus.”
Eventually we made it to one of the smaller beaches in the park. After taking a quick dip in the crystal blue water, Laura and I decided it was time for a snack. As Laura sat on a rock eating her peanut butter and banana tortilla, I turned and thought, “hey, monkey. What’s up?” And then immediately said, “Ay! Laura! Look out!” The monkey was creeping up behind her and was about a foot and a half away, totally about to take the tortilla straight out of her hands when she turned around! This is the monkey (look how much he’s mean-mugging me over my tortilla) :
First of all, I love traveling with Laura and am SO grateful that God has blessed me with her friendship. Every trip we’ve taken and all the time I’ve spent with her since I’ve known her has just been filled with conversations that I just know make God smile a lot. She’s such an encouraging person and definitely someone I love talking with about the awesomeness of God’s love and grace in our lives!
We met lots of fun new people at the hostel right away Saturday morning. While I was making pancakes, I accidentally squirted oil all over the pancakes and hands of the guy on the griddle next to me, and thus we made our first friend, despite my clumsiness, haha. “Guillermo” (or “Guillame” as he was undoubtedly known in his home of Quebec, before he traveled to Latin America and adopted “Guillermo”) was very friendly and generous. We also met the other Guillame (who decided to keep his French name, apparently) and Milagros, a girl from Argentina. We all ended up taking the bus to the park together, so we spent most of the morning hiking together through the park. It was a fun dynamic because the Guillame and Guillermo spoke English and French, Milagros only spoke Spanish, and of course Laura and I speak English (but could talk pretty well to Milagros in Spanish as well).
During our hike on the trails, we saw two sloths moving fairly quickly and had a few fantastic views of the ocean and some of the islands off the coast. We also made other new friends, Lee from Colorado and David from Texas (who is here for “medical tourism:” having teeth replaced and turning it into a four week trip). Eventually we all sort of split up and Laura and I ended up taking some side trails with David. My favorite moment: while looking for monkeys, David mentioned how we’d see one eventually, wearing a gold chain he stole from somebody, saying, “Mae, I been hustlin’ since you was homo erectus.”
Eventually we made it to one of the smaller beaches in the park. After taking a quick dip in the crystal blue water, Laura and I decided it was time for a snack. As Laura sat on a rock eating her peanut butter and banana tortilla, I turned and thought, “hey, monkey. What’s up?” And then immediately said, “Ay! Laura! Look out!” The monkey was creeping up behind her and was about a foot and a half away, totally about to take the tortilla straight out of her hands when she turned around! This is the monkey (look how much he’s mean-mugging me over my tortilla) :
Later, while we were still on the shore, the monkey started creeping across the log again. About that time, David started running out of the ocean, laughing but yelling, “get it, get it!” I was thinking, “what, the monkey? Do you want me to just grab it??” At that point I realized his bag was on the end of the tree and the monkey was going for it. Luckily, I got to it and scared the monkey off just in time to save his stuff. After those two close calls, we spent some time watching the monkeys playing in the trees and on the ground. It was pretty much straight out of the Jungle Book (all they wanted was fire, I’m telling you…)
Laura and I spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between laying on the beach and playing in the water (of course, one of us always had to be on the shore so we could guard the stuff, mostly from the monkeys and raccoons) and climbing around on the rocks. It was a pretty amazing day. Later in the afternoon we spent some time practicing our Spanish talking to the people working in the outdoor market area (we met “Brad Pitt,” of course). That night, we went to our first reggae concert at La Barba Roja and had a great time dancing with a lot of the locals in town. Sunday we spent the morning on the beach and the afternoon back in the market area, then caught the bus back to Chepe. ¡Que hermosa la playa, y que lindo paseo!
Laura and I spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between laying on the beach and playing in the water (of course, one of us always had to be on the shore so we could guard the stuff, mostly from the monkeys and raccoons) and climbing around on the rocks. It was a pretty amazing day. Later in the afternoon we spent some time practicing our Spanish talking to the people working in the outdoor market area (we met “Brad Pitt,” of course). That night, we went to our first reggae concert at La Barba Roja and had a great time dancing with a lot of the locals in town. Sunday we spent the morning on the beach and the afternoon back in the market area, then caught the bus back to Chepe. ¡Que hermosa la playa, y que lindo paseo!
Note from today: I got to apply my knowledge of the verb “caer” this afternoon. It went like this when I was talking to Fabi, my “little brother:” “Cuando estaba corriendo, me caí. ¡Mira! ¡Qué sucia! (Okay, it wasn’t a very extensive or complicated explanation, but it worked.)
For my gringo amigos: “caer” means “to fall.” While I was running today, I was just starting to speed up, thinking, “hey, I feel really good today!” The sidewalks are pretty jacked up here, and there is one particular stretch outside this one shop where there are always all sorts of puddles… So I was trying to dodge the puddles and the cracks and, of course, about that time I tripped and just laid out in the puddles. On my stomach, flat out. I hopped right back up, hoping no one saw me (of course I was right outside of a window and I was running along a super busy street during rush hour…no chance), and continued running all the while trying to at least wipe the mud off of my arms on my clothes. Keep in mind, the Ticos are a very clean people, so when they see this crazy chiquitita running down the road looking like she just crawled out of a gringo trap… Ay. Also, I should point out…It has not rained recently at all, so I don’t even want to think about what caused all the mud and what I was rolling in. Qué torta.
I wish I could tell y’all many more exciting stories about all sorts of awesome Central American things but the truth is….even here, when it comes down to it, I’m still my usual clumsy, awkward self, doing things like tripping and falling on my face while trying to be all coordinated running. That apparently doesn’t change, regardless of what language I might be speaking while I’m doing it. :o)
For my gringo amigos: “caer” means “to fall.” While I was running today, I was just starting to speed up, thinking, “hey, I feel really good today!” The sidewalks are pretty jacked up here, and there is one particular stretch outside this one shop where there are always all sorts of puddles… So I was trying to dodge the puddles and the cracks and, of course, about that time I tripped and just laid out in the puddles. On my stomach, flat out. I hopped right back up, hoping no one saw me (of course I was right outside of a window and I was running along a super busy street during rush hour…no chance), and continued running all the while trying to at least wipe the mud off of my arms on my clothes. Keep in mind, the Ticos are a very clean people, so when they see this crazy chiquitita running down the road looking like she just crawled out of a gringo trap… Ay. Also, I should point out…It has not rained recently at all, so I don’t even want to think about what caused all the mud and what I was rolling in. Qué torta.
I wish I could tell y’all many more exciting stories about all sorts of awesome Central American things but the truth is….even here, when it comes down to it, I’m still my usual clumsy, awkward self, doing things like tripping and falling on my face while trying to be all coordinated running. That apparently doesn’t change, regardless of what language I might be speaking while I’m doing it. :o)